Assistant Professor - Medieval Studies - Comparative Literature and Spanish & Portuguese

The Departments of Spanish & Portuguese and Comparative Literature at UC Berkeley seek applications for an Assistant Professor specializing in Medieval Literature and Culture.
The successful candidate will have a rigorous grounding in Medieval Studies, with specialized training in Spanish and another language and the ability to work across languages and traditions. This broad, interdisciplinary field can include the study of literary history, social history, intellectual history, religious history, or linguistic history. Additional areas of specialization that would be welcome are Portuguese, Arabic, Hebrew, Latin, Catalan, Occitan, Mediterranean Studies, gender studies, race studies, and material culture studies.
The successful candidate will teach a broad range of undergraduate and graduate courses that are central, both to the majors and to general education in the Division.
The appointee will also advise undergraduates and graduates and supervise student research, develop a successful and original research program, and provide service contributions. The appointee will be encouraged to contribute to the department’s diverse and inclusive community through their research, teaching, and/or service.
In addition to a strong grounding in literary and/or cultural history, we would welcome secondary training in areas such as gender studies, historical linguistics, critical race studies, material culture studies, classical reception studies, or Mediterranean Studies. The Iberian peninsula in the Middle Ages was characterized by a rich and fascinating intersection of cultures using Spanish, Portuguese, Latin, Hebrew, and Arabic. Work that takes this complexity and diversity into account would be of special interest to us. Beyond that, we are looking for creativity, rigor and distinction in the candidates’ written work and oral presentations—and, not least, their ability to develop new strands of research that will continue to shape the field going forward.
About the Departments:
The departments of
Comparative Literature
and
Spanish and Portuguese
provide faculty with the opportunity to teach and mentor both graduate and
undergraduate students. Faculty members teach on a wide variety of topics and approaches.
UC Berkeley values the family needs of faculty, including dual career couples, single parents, or those who may have taken time off for family reasons. For information about potential relocation to Berkeley, or career needs of accompanying partners and spouses, please visit the
Office for Faculty Equity and Welfare's website
.
The UC Berkeley Department of
Comparative Literature
is dedicated to comparative literary study that is both historical and theoretical, covering literary traditions from several inter-related regions and traditions. This combination of intensity and breadth is reflected in the composition of our faculty, seventeen of whom are jointly appointed with national literature departments. Faculty are actively involved in various programs on campus, such as the Critical Theory Designated Emphasis, Film Studies, Medieval Studies and the Early Modern Studies Designated Emphasis. Our signature combination of teaching and research on literature, film, and other media is based on knowledge of original languages, an understanding of historical context and production, and theoretically innovative perspectives. Texts read in research seminars include both authors from a global range of literary and cultural traditions, and theoretical interventions that question the how and why of cultural production.
The Department of
Spanish and Portuguese
studies the literary, cultural, and linguistic products of the Hispanic and Lusophone worlds, and aims to legitimize, support and empower the Hispanic and Lusophone-speaking and -studying students that we serve. We offer students an abundance of opportunities to achieve mastery of the languages and cultures we study, which include Catalan, Nahuatl, Portuguese, Romance Studies, and Spanish. Our programs are designed for highly motivated students with a passion for other languages, literatures, and cultures, linguistics, as well as for approaches that carefully cross traditionally defined geographic, linguistic and disciplinary borders. Faculty are formally involved with many departments or units on campus: for example, Applied Data Science, Latin American Studies, European Studies, Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures, and Rhetoric.
For more than a decade, the placement record for tenure-track jobs in both departments is among the very best in the country. This remarkable record speaks not only to the intellectual culture of the departments but also to our faculty’s consistent devotion to teaching and mentoring. Both undergraduate programs are flourishing. Given California’s Hispanic heritage and demographics, the intersection of Comparative Literature and Spanish/Portuguese offers remarkable opportunities for teaching across languages, genres, and media.
Both departments deeply value multilingualism and international engagement.

Department
:
https://complit.berkeley.edu/
Department
:
https://spanish-portuguese.berkeley.edu/

Basic qualifications
(required at time of application)
Ph.D. (or equivalent international degree), or enrolled in PhD or equivalent international degree-granting program at the time of application.

Additional qualifications
(required at time of start)
Native or Near-native English and Spanish language proficiency is required to conduct courses in English, as well as in Spanish.
Evidence of ability to conduct research in more than one language, literature, and culture, working with texts in the original languages of the relevant literature/cultures.

Preferred qualifications
Evidence of broad competence in literary studies and in critical approaches to theoretical frameworks, demonstrated through formal study and/or publication record.
Evidence of ability to teach a range of graduate and undergraduate courses and to teach in broadly based undergraduate courses with a trans-historical or multilingual dimension.
Evidence of ability to attract undergraduate and graduate students to the departments, mentor them, nurture their research interests, and work dynamically in a variety of pedagogical contexts, both individually and collaboratively.

Document requirements
Cover Letter - A cover letter that outlines current and future research plans, service, and teaching experience.
Curriculum Vitae - Your most recently updated C.V.
Writing Sample - A writing sample of no more than 30 pages (double spaced), demonstrating your best work as a scholar and critic.
Teaching Statement - A two-page reflection on your approaches and experience with teaching. This need not be a traditional “Teaching Statement,” but should be something that will help our committee understand your values and interests in the classroom.
Please discuss prior teaching experience, teaching approach, and future teaching interests. This can include, for example, specific efforts and accomplishments, and future plans to support the success of all students through classroom environment and pedagogy. Please also discuss your mentoring approaches.
Research Statement - Please discuss research accomplishments and plans––past, current, and future. This can include, for example, an extended summary of dissertation/book project, as well as broader research profile, including essays, presentations, other research practices that promote the excellence of research, and areas for future research.
Service Statement - In a document of no more than one page, please discuss specific prior and proposed academic, professional and/or public service activities. This can include, for example, participating in professional or scientific associations, serving on committees that advance department, campus or discipline goals, and conducting outreach activities that can remove barriers and increase participation of academics in your field.
Authorization to Release Information Form - An institutional reference check will be completed only if you are selected as the candidate to whom the hiring unit would like to extend a formal offer. Download, complete, sign, and upload the
Authorization to Release Information form
.
Reference requirements
3 letters of reference required
Apply link:
https://aprecruit.berkeley.edu/JPF05509

Help contact:
clfa_apc@berkeley.edu